Mark Your Calendar! All families are invited to attend our Music Studio Day in two weeks on Tuesday, February 18, 10:20-11:20am, in the music room (1217), which is on the same floor as the school office. Please allow time to park and sign in at the office. It's truly amazing what Mrs. Acitelli is able to do with our students in ten classes. This will be our last music class this year. When we come back from spring break, we will begin our final Arts rotation, Dance with Mrs. Neel.
English Language Arts - We have begun a nonfiction unit and so students will now have a "just right" nonfiction book they've selected from our class library to read at home each night. I am happy to have students continue to read a fiction book, and many are "into" a series that they want to continue. Most third graders are able to simultaneously read a nonfiction informational book and a fiction "story" book without difficulty. (If they are confusing the two, then they are likely NOT reading books that are at their "just right" level.) That said, the nightly assigned "read a chunk" homework is to be in their nonfiction book.
Depending on the structure of the text, students may take longer to read a page of nonfiction than a page of fiction. The notes they take in their blue reading NB or on post-its will look differently. They often flip back to an earlier section as they put together the things they are learning. Many NF books have labeled diagrams, charts, graphs, or captioned photos, all of which need to be carefully studied. I hope that you will have some time to engage your child in a conversation about what they are learning and why they chose the book.
As I mentioned at our Publishing Party last week, we will begin writing our own informational texts in writing workshop soon.